EASTON, Pa.
After the post-game press conference at Lafayette on Saturday, Leopards coach Frank Tavani offered some words of encouragement.
"You guys got a good football team," he said. "They're gonna be all right. It's two tough games, I know, but believe me."
I believe him.
Sure, it feels like déj… v—. Penn dropped its first two games last season to Villanova and Lafayette, before following up the non-conference losses by laying an egg at Dartmouth. Did I mention that they lost their starting quarterback for the year?
That season was pretty much over before it started.
And not even Tavani or Villanova's coach Andy Talley, would have had you believe last season that Penn's football team had a potentially bright future ahead of it. Now, both coaches strongly believe that they beat one of the best teams in the Ivy League.
"I think Penn has a great chance to be Ivy champs again," Talley said.
Unlike last season, when you needed a microscope to find positives from the Quakers' first two games, this season's performances against Villanova and Lafayette have been very impressive, save Saturday's first half.
But one horrendous half followed by a resilient comeback sure beats the two horrendous halves of football the Quakers played against the Leopards at home last season.
Lafayette's defense came into Saturday's game holding its opponents to a nation-low six points per game. The Quakers nearly tripled that in the second half.
Villanova, which Penn took to overtime in its first game of the season, knocked off Richmond on Saturday. The Spiders had been ranked No. 1 in the Football Championship Subdivision. Lafayette is off to a 3-0 start.
Still, the Quakers took two much-improved teams to the wire -- two squads that could likely beat any team in the Ancient Eight on any given Saturday. Penn coach Al Bagnoli summed it up best.
"These are two teams that, between them, have a total of one loss, and that's to West Virginia at West Virginia," he said.
Meanwhile, as Ivy League favorites Harvard and Yale find themselves in the same 0-1 hole Penn was in last season, the Quakers still have a clean slate and a golden opportunity. The season is far from over.
Andrew Todres is a senior History and Political Science double-major from New York. His e-mail address is todres@dailypennsylvanian.com.
